A report on the impact of social media and Web 2.0 on today's workplace, found that one-fifth (21%) of people would turn down a job that did not allow them to access social networking sites or personal email during work time.

The majority (79%) of the respondents said over and above job role and pay, the most important things to them in a job included being trusted to manage their own time, and being trusted to use the internet as they wish. 62% of employees feel they should be able to access web / social networking content from their work computer for personal reasons (compared to 51% of managers).

Clearswift, the software security company that carried out the research, has also dubbed workers who never seem to fully switch off from work or home as ’Generation Standby'.

The characteristics of this group is that they are regularly ‘home-ing’ from work due to the increased pressure to work longer hours and regularly carrying out social and private tasks at work. The trend is most pronounced amongst 25 – 34 year olds, with 57% undertaking personal tasks such as checking social networks, emailing and online shopping at work, although 66% of all employees say they make up the time they spend using the internet for personal reasons by working later or through lunch.

Men were found to be more likely to ‘home from work’ than women, with 48% logging on to social networking sites at work (versus 36% of women); 69% checking personal email in the office (compared to 54% of women); and 34% shopping online during work time (versus 20% of women).

Hilary Backwell, Clearswift's Global HR Director, said:

“Call it multi-tasking or life-splicing but increasingly, fuelled by advances in technology, employees are blurring the boundaries between home and work. What this report has shown is that ‘Generation Standby’ employees are now enjoying, and expecting, greater levels of flexibility and mobility than ever before – but this cultural shift raises new questions about trust in the workplace, the use of new technologies, the balance of power in the employer versus employee relationship and levels of control that businesses now have over people and content.”